Gweni isn’t like other girls. For a start, she can fly in her sleep. This ability allows her to see things that would otherwise go undetected - like the man lying face down in the pool, his “moonshiny” eyes staring out.
The Earth Hums in B Flat is, put simply, a detective story told from the perspective of Gweni, a 12 year old girl on the cusp of adulthood. As Gweni struggles to make sense of a crime that’s haunting her community, she also struggles to make sense of the changes occurring in her own life, of the complexities of her village's circumstances and the sometimes blurred distinction between good and bad. Whilst helping the local police officer to untangle the crime she ends up inadvertently untangling her own family history and grasps, for the first time, the continued influence of the past on our present. These discoveries end up challenging Gweni’s preconceptions of what is right and wrong, allowing us to see her young mind grow and develop as she begins to leave her childhood behind.
Told in a simple, unaffected manner The Earth Hums in B Flat is a warm novel dealing with the issues of growing up in a small village in Wales during the 1950s. Although the story is set in the past its themes are as relevant today. There is something special about this book because there is something special about Gweni; her ability to fly in her sleep marks her out from other children allowing her to see the world from a different perspective, feeling the beat of its existence in a way that others simply can’t. Luckily we get a glimpse of it here.
327pp
Andrea Joyce
Canongate
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Scotland, UK
andrea.joyce@canongate.co.uk
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'Strachan's deft handling of a dark subject is both sober and sparkling.'
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